"Jack McKinney - Robotech Sentientals 4 - World Killers" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

their only chance. While listening to the others run through the eject
checklist and doing so himself, Jack hit a control stud as he imaged his ship.
His Battloid made a bowling movement. Crysta's cockpit/escape capsule
went sliding into the clear along the decking. A rough ride, but better than
being consumed by Haydon IV's gruesome defenses. The snakes ignored the
module, but kept coming at the VTs.
"You all strapped in tight back there, Bela?"
"Take us for a ride, Jackie boy!" she roared merrily.
Jack hurried his checklist rundown, to catch up with the others. The
Veritechs had zero-zero-eject systems, so that occupants could survive a
punch-out even at ground level, even at a standstill.
The snakes had gotten through on the decking now, swarming at them,
while more rained down from every cranny in the ceiling like some bizarre neon
version of an Old Testament plague. "All right, everybody: hit it!" Jack
barked. "And once you touch down, keep moving and don't look back!"
Janice had already punched out, pieces of her Battloid blown free by
explosive bolts so that her cockpit could be fired clear on blue eruptions of
Protoculture power. Kami and Learna went at almost exactly the same moment,
lofted through the air along with their passengers.
Jack hesitated until he saw that Lron was away, and then reached for his
eject switch. He hit it, then reached up, crossing his arms during the
fuse-delay to grab his seat harness, hands to opposite shoulders.
He gripped with everything he had and held his elbows tightly to him so
that his arms would not flap around and get broken when the charges went off.
He almost didn't make it; the snakes had gotten through his mecha's shin
armor and attacked the systemry there.
A power flux sent the metal goliath reeling, and for a moment Jack
thought he and Bela were going to be fired straight into a metal rampart of
Haydonite apparatus. But at the last split second, the Battloid responded to
his frantic imaging and straightened. The jolt of the ejection felt like it
was going to push his head down into his chest cavity.
Bela let out a lusty battle cry, mixed with her deep laughter. Jack was
not nearly so boisterous.
Lron and the rest were already scrambling free of their cockpit/escape
capsules. Crysta and her Invid passenger came trotting toward the grounded
capsules from the spot where her cockpit had stopped after Jack bowled it into
the clear.
Even the Invid captives-Tesla and the two scientists-were stepping
lively. Jack was fumbling to hit the releases on his safety harness before his
capsule smacked the decking, partially crumpling its skin.
He heard Jan's voice over his helmet phones. "Get clear of your
capsules! Hurry! The snakes have sensed them somehow!"
Jack blew the canopy and scrambled out to stand on his seat, grasping
the windshield frame. Jan was right: most of the snakes were still massing to
smother the now-motionless Battloids, but some had turned toward them and were
slithering in the direction of the ejection capsules.
"Bela, come on!" He was popping emergency panels, grabbing out gear and
weapons from the drop-lockers.
 But she was already on her feet, gathering up her Praxian weapons and
the REF gear she had brought along. "Right behind you, laddy-buck."